6/11/2009

The results of this past week’s European election was surprising. In every European country, except Greece, the center-right parties made gains at the expense of the center-left parties. Hopefully, this is the beginning of the end of sixty years of European consolidation and the degradation of the nation state.

These results may also be the beginning of the stand for traditional European culture and the rejection of the Islamification of the continent. The Islamification of Europe is detailed in Mark Steyn’s book, America Alone. In this book, Mr. Steyn explains the demographic shift and immigration patterns that are occurring all across Europe.

The election results in the Netherlands, for example, had the libertarian Freedom Party receive 17% of the vote and 4 of the 25 Dutch seats in the European Parliament. In Hungary, the center-right Fidesz Party defeated the Socialists by a vote of 56% to 17%. Because of the results in Hungry, the right wing parties are demanding that a new national election be called immediately.

Across Europe, anti-immigrant parties made surprising electoral gains. In Austria, they took almost 18% of the vote. In Italy and Finland, they took just over 10% of the vote. In Denmark, they received almost 14.5% of the vote.

The European and local elections in the United Kingdom also showed significant gains for conservative parties. The British National Party received 8.5% of the vote and won two seats in the European Parliament. In addition, the BNP won 7% of the vote in local council races, resulting in several seats on a few of these councils.

The new United Kingdom Independence Party (whose stated objective is that the United Kingdom “shall again be governed by laws made to suit its own needs by its own Parliament, which must be directly and solely accountable to the electorate of the UK”) won 17% of the European parliamentary vote, beating the ruling Labour Party by one percentage point (It’s hard to believe that the ruling party in Parliament was only able to get 16% of the European vote). The Tories have reason to be concerned in that they only received 27% of the vote, not that great of a showing for Her Majesty’s loyal opposition. Some even attribute the Tories modest success to their joining of the new Czech and Polish led Euro-skeptic bloc in the European Parliament.

Prior to last week, it was unthinkable that about 25% of British subjects would not vote for one of the three major parties – Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat. Instead, those one in four British voters cast their ballots for the disreputable BNP or the brand new UKIP. In either event, the status quo was not acceptable to a large number of voters.

If the major political parties of Europe do not reassess their policies to reflect the will of the people, other new, and maybe even less reputable, parties will step in to fill the void. The political elites across the continent should understand that their fellow countrymen believe that Europe, like all parts of the world, has a distinct and unique culture that is worth preserving.